MetaboGen AB receives 4.9 MSEK for development of pharmaceutical products based on the microbiome

Wed, Oct 25, 2017 08:00 CET

MetaboGen AB – a Swedish microbiome company – has been granted 4.9 MSEK by Sweden´s Innovation Agency, VINNOVA, for development of production- and formulation technologies for pharmaceutical products, based on bacterial strains isolated from the human gut.

The human intestinal tract is inhabited by 10-100 trillion of microbes comprised of thousands of different species, collectively called the microbiota. This microbial community has an immense capacity to affect host biology and imbalance in the gut microbiome is today associated with multiple diseases and unhealthy conditions. The microbiome holds great potential to provide the industry with new possibilities to understand and tackle health problems, but despite its both causative and preventive roles in several diseases, no pharmaceutical product available today contains anaerobic bacterial strains isolated from the gut. Novel technologies are needed in order to exploit the recent scientific achievements and produce pharmaceutical products.

-The microbiome field has reached a point when products start to emerge. The current grant will allow us accelerate developing potential therapeutic strategies for several diseases, says MetaboGen founder and Professor Fredrik Bäckhed.

-We are very grateful to VINNOVA for recognizing MetaboGen´s work in this area by giving us the opportunity to speed up our time to clinical results and to verify our technology, Sara Malcus, CEO of MetaboGen says.

-MetaboGen is very pleased to receive this decision fromVINNOVA. The granting of this project, which is a very important part of MetaboGen´s development work, means a lot to the company, says Peter Rothschild, Chairman of MetaboGen.

The VINNOVA grant will be used for development of novel production technologies by the use of two pilot strain derived from healthy human gut microbiota. The project will be performed in partnership with the University of Gothenburg and the Sahlgrenska University Hospital.

MetaboGen is a research-driven company with a focus on the microbiome and its impact on health, based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company was founded based on break through science from the labs of Professor Fredrik Bäckhed (University of Gothenburg) and Professor Jens B Nielsen (Chalmers University of Technology). Since 2011, MetaboGen develops products based on advanced mapping of the intestinal microflora composition. In 2014 BioGaia AB invested in the company. MetaboGens technology along with more than 25 years of experience in the development of probiotics from BioGaia, provides the company with a unique opportunity to develop the next generation of microbial products. MetaboGen has its headquarters and laboratory at the AstraZeneca BioVenture hub, Mölndal, Sweden.